'People have overreacted': Panic-buying fuels 2nd day of Greater Victoria gas shortage
Thursday marked the second day of frenzy at Greater Victoria gas stations, with many stations sold out of fuel and waiting to be resupplied.
Those gas shipments are slowly coming and experts say panic-buying at the pumps is making the situation worse.
After heavy rains washed out a portion of the Malahat highway, many people got spooked and began to fuel up their vehicles in case there was a gas shortage. Experts say that run on fuel actually created a fuel shortage.
“There is product available,” said Eric Gault, director of operations for Peninsula Co-op. “We just can’t get it through the bottleneck at this time.”
Gault says there is plenty of fuel on Vancouver Island. The problem is getting it over the Malahat from three storage facilities in Chemainus and Nanaimo.
As of Thursday morning, some fuel trucks had made it over the Malahat.
“For us, we took four loads of product and spread it around five locations this morning which certainly helped,” said Gault.
A Petro-Canada in Colwood also got a shipment overnight as well.
The good news is the gas you fill your car with on the island isn’t shipped through B.C.'s flood-ravaged mainland.
“I think people have overreacted,” said Dan McTeague, president of Canadians for Affordable Energy.
McTeague says Vancouver Island gets most of its gas from three refineries in Washington state. The fuel gets barged to those storage facilities on the Mid-Island, directly from those refineries.
"There should not to be any type of shortages or very few anyways as far as Vancouver Island and us here in Victoria are concerned,” he said.
McTeague added that it could be a week or more before the supply catches up with demand.
CTVNews.ca Top Stories
![](https://www.ctvnews.ca/polopoly_fs/1.6970476.1721410082!/httpImage/image.jpg_gen/derivatives/landscape_800/image.jpg)
The CrowdStrike outage is affecting health-care services in Canada. Here's what you need to know
A global technology outage that's grounded flights and delayed border crossings is also challenging health-care services in the country, as issues with Microsoft services persist.
Quebec woman's death warns of dangers of cosmetic surgery abroad
Brian McConnell's daughter, Florence McConnell, died after a liposuction surgery complication in Morocco. Now, he warns others against undergoing cosmetic surgeries abroad.
Interior residents get ready to flee as B.C. fire tally soars past 300
The out-of-control Shetland Creek fire in British Columbia's southern Interior has more than doubled in size due to what the wildfire service describes as "significant overnight growth" and more accurate mapping.
Polar bear 'Baffin' dies at Calgary Zoo after not resurfacing from pool
A polar bear died in its enclosure at the Wilder Institute/Calgary Zoo on Friday.
'I feel cheated': Here are the products hit hardest by shrinkflation
Canadians who feel like they are getting less bang for their buck at the grocery store these days might be right. A new report shows the effects of shrinkflation are real.
Tentative deal to end LCBO strike on hold as province accuses union of introducing new demands
The LCBO strike appears to be back on just hours after a tentative agreement was announced.
Woman guilty of murdering, dismembering boyfriend in Nanaimo, B.C.
A 28-year-old British Columbia woman has been found guilty of killing and dismembering her boyfriend on Vancouver Island nearly four years ago.
opinion Trump's assassination attempt not a political winner
Danger and fear are so pervasive throughout the national political ethos it is now the norm, writes Washington political columnist Eric Ham.
What a Donald Trump presidency means for Canada
The most striking thing about walking the floor of the Republican National Convention (RNC) is seeing just how much this is Donald Trump's party, CTV News' Vassy Kapelos says.